A Look At The Massive Real Estate Business Jared Kushner Is Setting Aside

Donald Trump has tapped his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, as a senior adviser. Kushner, who is married to Trump's eldest daughter Ivanka Trump, has for the past decade run Kushner Companies, the umbrella corporation that oversees the family's many real estate holdings.

Transition officials said Monday Kushner will step down from the post and divest some of his assets in order to comply with federal ethics laws that apply to government employees. Here's a look at what is known about the Kushner family's investments:

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

Real Estate

Courtesy of Kushner Companies

The Kushner family principally deals in real estate, owning or managing properties in New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Illinois and a handful of other states. According to the company's website, Kushner owns or manages 20,000 apartments, 13 million square feet of office space and industrial properties.

Its holdings in Manhattan include tenement walk-ups on the borough's Lower East Side, an Albert Wagner-designed historic building in the city's trendy SoHo neighborhood and a 41-story midtown Manhattan office tower he purchased in 2007 for $1.8 billion in a highly-leveraged deal. The company is also building luxury towers in Jersey City, New Jersey, and recently acquired a cluster of buildings previously owned by the Jehovah's Witnesses, including their so-called Watchtower headquarters, along the Brooklyn waterfront.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

Transition officials say Kushner will resign as CEO of Kushner Companies and divest his shares of the skyscraper, 666 Fifth Avenue, by selling them at market rate into a trust run by his mother.

Media

Getty Images

In 2006, at age 25, Kushner purchased a New York media and culture publication, The Observer, for $10 million. Earlier this year, the publication announced it would cease printing its editions on its trademark salmon-colored paper, instead offering its content exclusively online. The company that owns the National Enquirer, American Media Inc., has denied that it is in talks to take over The Observer.

Last July, during the presidential campaign, Kushner penned a piece in the publication defending his father-in-law against claims he hadn't sufficiently renounced support from anti-Semitic boosters, writing in his opening line: "My father-in-law is not an anti-Semite."

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

Transition officials say Kushner is resigning from his role at The Observer.

Other Holdings

Getty Images

Exactly how all of Kushner's money is invested isn't entirely known.

His company also lends money, providing financing to other real estate developers via the Kushner Credit Opportunity Fund, a so-called peer-to-peer lender that isn't subject to the same financial regulations as most banks. His brother, Joshua, is a co-founder of the technology-minded health insurer, Oscar Health, which rents office space in a building that Kushner's company owns.

Joshua Kushner also is a partner in a venture capital firm called Thrive Capital that says it invests in technology companies. Jared Kushner has a stake in that business, but transition officials say he'll sell it to his brother. Some of those include Instagram, which Facebook acquired for $1 billion in 2012, an app called Vostu, Paperless Post, Group.Me and a company that rates commercial buildings in the U.S. for their internet connectivity.

Transition officials say Kushner is resigning from all of his other partnerships, trusteeships and divesting from 35 investments.

A Part of Hearst Digital Media
ELLE Decor participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites.